Jean Isaacs worked her way through college with a job at a mental hospital. She spent her years at Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., surrounded by the pain and chaos of the hospital and a campus full of rich girls who didn’t understand.

But she had dance to fall back on. No matter how tight times got, there was always money for lessons.

It’s become Isaacs’ mission to give others the chance to experience her first love.

“I think there’s a kind of truth to dance that’s not the same as the sciences — it’s instinctual,” she said. “When people see a dance or a flash mob, they get to see that, to see art.”

Tickets: $35 for general admission, $25 for seniors and $15 for students. Ticket price includes a free all-day trolley pass with advance purchase.

Phone: (619) 225-1803

Online: sandiegodancetheater.org

Fifteen years ago, Isaacs started Trolley Dances, a multi-location dance spectacular that takes San Diegans on an artistic tour of the city’s often-unexplored neighborhoods. In this year’s shows, 45 dancers will perform at six sites as the audience travels by trolley from Barrio Logan to the new Central Library, stopping to see dances inspired by locations throughout the city.

‘Connection to the site’

Trolley Dances’ site-specific style keeps Cecily Holcombe coming back. She started performing in the event before phones had texting.

The first year she performed, she waited with the rest of her cast in an underground parking lot turned performance space, chatting excitedly in the summer sun while they waited for the audience to appear.

“We didn’t have texting to know when the next group was coming,” Holcombe said. “Whenever we saw a big group of people, we started performing.”

The 41-year-old Solana Beach resident has become a fixture in Trolley Dances, only bowing out a few scattered years to give birth to, or care for, one of her three children.

“It’s a blast because usually I’m on a stage or in a theater. This is totally different,” she said. “You get to interact with the space.”

Even as a San Diego native, Holcombe is introduced to parts of the city she’s never seen with each year’s event.

Bringing different areas to the forefront of San Diego’s artistic community is one of the highlights of the event for Isaacs. She loves when natives tell her they never would have been to a neighborhood if Trolley Dances hadn’t taken them there.

“The neighborhood we’re starting in this year — Barrio Logan — doesn’t have the best reputation, but it’s beautiful and charming and safe, the Hispanic center of the community,” Isaacs said. “This is a tour that connects neighborhoods that have previously felt disconnected.”